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In addition to having one of the largest banking sectors in North Africa, Egypt’s is also one of the most profitable. In more recent times, lenders have made easy gains on high-yielding government debt following the 2011 revolution, while an improving macroeconomic environment and the flotation of the local currency led to another robust performance for the sector in 2017. However, there are numerous challenges facing domestic lenders, such as a controversial new banking law and a bold lending target to small and medium-sized enterprises set by the regulator. Both of these issues are linked to the goal of redefining the role of banks in Egypt’s wider economy. This chapter contains a roundtable with Dante Campioni, Managing Director and CEO, Alexbank; Mohammed El Etreby, CEO, Banque Misr; Hisham Ezz El Arab, Chairman, Commercial International Bank; and Hisham Okasha, Executive Chairman, National Bank of Egypt.

In 2017 the World Bank estimated that GDP grew by 3.9% over the year, and forecast it would expand by 4.6% in 2018 – a significant improvement on the 2% average GDP growth rate seen between FY 2010/11 and FY 2013/14. A newly liberalised currency and the recent implementation of a much-anticipated investment framework have also left Egypt well positioned for continued economic expansion in 2018. Despite a gradually improving fiscal scenario, a structural fiscal deficit remains the key economic challenge, and one that nearly all of its reforms aim to address. Raising revenue via taxation is one way the government is attempting to tackle the fiscal deficit, and in the first half of FY 2017/18, tax revenue reached LE249bn ($16.4bn), a year-on-year increase of 66%. This chapter contains interviews with Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation; and Tarik Tawfik, President, American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt.

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Dubai is home to a domestic stock exchange, an international market with one of the largest concentration of sukuk (Islamic bonds) in the world, as well as equity futures and three derivatives platform operators: the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, Dubai Mercantile Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. The emirate continues to attract major international sukuk listings and all of its exchanges are in the process of expanding their product offerings, including moves into areas such as index funds and real estate investment trusts, and various new types of derivatives contracts. This chapter contains interviews with Essa Kazim, Chairman, Dubai Financial Market; Hamed Ali, CEO, Nasdaq Dubai; and Abdulfattah Sharaf, Group General Manager and CEO for the UAE, HSBC Bank Middle East.

This chapter contains an outline of the legal framework within which local and international firms operate in Oman, including a look at the work being done to improve it and a summary of the regulations governing key economic sectors. This chapter contains a viewpoint from Ben Ewing, Partner, CMS.